Doolittle K’s Tyler Moore to end the game. Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
With Max Scherzer starting this game, you usually feel confident that the outcome in the game will be a win. The Nationals offense only scored 2 runs for Scherzer, and Max gave up 2-runs to leave this game to his bullpen and the Nationals offsense. It isn’t how Dusty Baker drew it up, and in the end it was Adam Lind’s clutch pinch-hit single for the game winner in the 8th inning. It also needed a big zero from Brandon Kintzler and Sean Doolittle to nail down the game in the 8th and 9th innings.
Max Scherzer went 7.0 innings of 2-run baseball throwing 114 pitches in a no-decision. In the 7th inning, the voice of MASN, F.P. Santangelo, said Scherzer was “running on empty”. Scherzer stayed in the game until he recorded the final out in the 7th inning.
"It’s not hero time yet, so we’ve got to take care of Max," Dusty Baker said this afternoon. Scherzer just threw his 107th pitch.
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) August 8, 2017
Scherzer is coming off a game 6 days ago when he only completed one inning and pulled himself from the game with a sore neck.
The Nats scored runs on a Bryce Harper blast which was his 29th of the season and 150th of his career and another run scored on a Matt Wieters single with the final run on the Adam Lind single that was manufactured by a Wilmer Difo lead-off single, an Andrew Stevenson sacrifice bunt and then the Lind single to score Difo.
Lind’s pinch-hit RBI was his 10th RBI coming on pinch-hits, and another game winner.
Brandon Kintzler earned the win and Sean Doolittle finished with his 6th save. The Nationals improved to 66-44 and widened their NL East lead over these second-place Marlins.
